Rick Benjamin (born October 22, 1952, in

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2020 was 86,518. It is the third-largest city in Western Connecticut, and the seventh-largest ...

) is a

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

s journalist. He was

Speed Channel Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as a ...

's voice of the

USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series The zMAX CARS Tour (formerly known as the USARacing Pro Cup Series, USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, CARS Pro Cup Series, Rev-Oil Pro Cup Series, CARS X1-R Pro Cup Series) and the SPEARS CARS Tour West are a pair of stock car auto racing series in the ...

, and was the voice of

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a Governing body, sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing T ...

racing for

HDNet AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...

from 2004 until the end of the final season of Champ Car in 2007. Benjamin was a local news reporter from 1976 until 1996, being a television anchorman and managing editor for markets as diverse as

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

(where his youngest son's birth was announced on-air);

KSAT-TV KSAT-TV (channel 12) is a television station in San Antonio, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Graham Media Group, the station maintains studios on North St. Mary's Street on the northern edge of downtown, and its transmitte ...

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

; the

Nebraska Television Network The Nebraska Television Network (NTV) is the ABC affiliate for most of central and western Nebraska. It consists of two full-power stations—KHGI-TV (channel 13) in Kearney, with its transmitter near Lowell, and KWNB-TV (channel 6) in Ha ...

Kearney, Nebraska Kearney ( ) is the county seat of Buffalo County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 33,790 in the 2020 census, making it the 5th most populous city in Nebraska. It is home to the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The westward pus ...

;

KWQC KWQC-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, serving the Quad Cities area as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains studios on Brady Street in downtown Davenport, and its transm ...

in the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...

of Iowa and Illinois; Toledo, Ohio; and Roanoke, Virginia. He was also the news director for Waterbury, CT's WATR. Benjamin also did work for

Mizlou Television Network Mizlou Television Network was a sports broadcast television network active from 1968-1991. In 1968, its predecessor, the Unisphere Broadcasting System (UBS) was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, which is now based in Tampa, Florida. Mi ...

for their

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

coverage, and for

SportsChannel SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, ...

in 1990 when they aired Busch Grand National races, using the pseudonym Ron Williams. When

The Nashville Network The Nashville Network, usually referred to as TNN, was an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming included music videos, taped concerts, movies, game shows, syndicated programs, and numerous talk shows. On September ...

bought 50% of

Ken Squier Kenley Dean Squier (April 10, 1935 – November 15, 2023) was an American sportscaster and motorsports editor from Waterbury, Vermont. From 1979 to 1997, he served as the lap-by-lap commentator for '' NASCAR on CBS'', and was also a lap-by-l ...

and Fred Rheinstein's World Sports Enterprises, and shifted production of TNN's popular '' RaceDay'' from Patterson International to the network's own in-house operation, located inside the industrial park of

Lowe's Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009 due to sponsorship reasons) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It has hosted various major races since it ...

, Benjamin was named anchor of the network's RaceDay in 1995, anchoring the show until MTV shut down the entire CBS Charlotte operation in November 2000. Benjamin is responsible for the "rebranding" of CART into Champ Cars, as during the CART-IRL dispute, Benjamin began using the term "Champ Car," an old term used in USAC during the Marlboro Championship Trail, to refer to the CART formula in 1997, on RaceDay after the rival Indy Racing League switched to a normally aspirated formula. The show used the term, which CART began using in 1998 after Federal Express took over sponsorship of the series from PPG Industries, and the new "Champ Car" term was a reference to the FedEx Championship Series. Since 2004, he has been the lead announcer for the series, which has gone out on Spike TV, CBS, NBC, Speed Channel & in 2007 returning to the networks of ESPN & ABC for the first time since 2001. Benjamin was one of the first on-air personalities at Speed when it was launched as SpeedVision in 1996. He is a former '' SpeedNews'' anchor. Benjamin is also frequently a backup news anchor at Charlotte radio station WBT, where he has some duties with the Carolina Panthers pre and post game shows, and has used his experience in the news media to form Visioncast, where his group teaches drivers, crewmen, and corporate representatives to face the media. Benjamin formerly co-hosted Tradin' Paint with Danny "Chocolate" Myers on

Sirius Satellite Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Li ...

channel 90. He was succeeded by Jim Noble. Benjamin also appeared in the movie '' Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'', starring Will Ferrell.

References

1952 births Living people Motorsport announcers {{US-autoracing-bio-stub